By West Kentucky Star employees
Jul. 14, 2026 | 03:47 PM
| TENNESSEE
A brand new examine has Tennessee speaking, after information community CNBC printed outcomes that stated the Volunteer State was America’s worst state during which to reside.
CNBC launched its twentieth annual “America’s Top States for Business” study, which this 12 months put extra weight on what it outlined as high quality of life.
CNBC famous that to outline quality of life, it used subcategories together with civil rights legal guidelines, reproductive rights, inclusiveness, crime charges, air high quality, healthcare entry and employee protections as elements that may harm a state’s rankings.
Along with Tennessee, the underside ten states that didn’t “make the grade” in high quality of life included Texas, Indiana, Louisiana, Georgia, Utah, Missouri, Alabama, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
By comparision, official U.S. Census information reveals Texas, Tennessee and Georgia are within the prime ten within the nation in inhabitants progress. And even with its F grade in high quality of life, Tennessee was nonetheless a prime ten state in CNBC’s general rankings of Top States for Business.
At the other finish of the CNBC scale, its prime ten states for “exemplary quality of life” have been Vermont, Maine, New Jersey, Minnesota, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Virginia, North Dakota, Massachusetts and Nebraska.
Under this 12 months’s methodology, amongst ten classes, high quality of life makes up virtually 12 p.c of a state’s general rating within the examine. Infrastructure was the highest-weighted class in 2026, accounting for practically 18% of a state’s complete rating.
On the Facebook web page of a Nashville TV station, their article concerning the examine has generated greater than ten thousand feedback since Monday. By distinction, most of their different articles common lower than ten feedback.
CNBC’s 2025 examine additionally listed Tennessee as fiftieth in high quality of life.
Kentucky was stated to rank twenty seventh within the prime states for enterprise, and thirtieth in high quality of life. Kentucky’s highest-ranked class was a prime ten end in the price of doing enterprise.
Illinois was ranked twelfth within the prime states for enterprise, and twenty second in high quality of life. Its prime class rating was third nationally in infrastructure.
The full “Top States for Business” examine will be seen here .
Nashville, TN skyline. (AP Photo George Walker IV)